Imagine you are making a music video: You’re the director, in control of every aspect of filmmaking. This isn’t just any video. It’s a video for the rock band Korn, and you designed it yourself.
This dream may soon become a reality for junior Carl Wilhoyte. He is one of 21 finalists in MTV’s Direct A Video Contest.
Wilhoyte, a Korn fan since the band released its first album, saw an advertisement for the free contest in August and decided to enter.
While a video is basically a commercial, Wilhoyte, a creative writing major, still wanted to make it somewhat artistic and show some creativity.
“It’s a very abstract, metaphorical concept,” he said. “I really can’t explain it. It’s like a painting.”
Wilhoyte’s concept also reflects his personal taste.
“I wouldn’t even show the band singing because I hate those videos,” he added. “It has a lot of music video-type images. It’s not very standard. It’s not like they all hang out together, go play, and then hang out together on a big boat.”
The video contest, held in celebration of MTV’s 21st birthday, is the first time that the channel has ever held a nationwide contest for a video director. One filmmaker will be given the opportunity to direct the video for “Alone I Break,” Korn’s new single off the group’s current album Untouchables.
The contest is made up of two parts. The first was to send in a short concept, which a panel of judges from Epic Records reviewed. The panel then narrowed down the field of over 1,000 entries down to 21, one being Wilhoyte’s. The second part consisted of submitting a videotape of yourself. Korn then personally reviews the final entries and handpicks the winner.
One week after Wilhoyte submitted his contest entry, he received a call from MTV, informing him that he was a finalist.
“I was really suprised,” he said. “I wasn’t really confident because I wrote it really fast. I hammered out a quick concept in three hours.”
Wilhoyte’s big chance was almost shattered when an MTV representative gave him the wrong address to send his videotape to.
“I almost scrapped it, when it was sent back,” he admitted. “I didn’t want to be a sell-out, doing it for the money.” Wilhoyte soon received another call from MTV, asking if he was still interested in the contest. He changed his mind about scrapping his work, over-nighting the video-tape to the right MTV address this time.
The winner of the contest, according to the All Info-About Music Videos website, will receive roundtrip airfare to Los Angeles, hotel accomodations, ground transportation, computer equipment valued up to $2,250, DV camera equipment valued up to $4,500, and a director’s fee of $21,000 in cash. In addition, the winner will also be the star of “MTV TREATMENT,” a documentary on the winner that will debut this fall. The winner will also be notified by a personal phone call from the band, inviting the winner to begin shooting.
When asked about winning the contest, Wilhoyte just smiles. “The funnest thing would be to have them follow me around,” he said.
Winning would also give him a direct chance to get into film, something he would love to do.
“That’d be a great thing to put on your resume, that you directed a music video for a multi-platinum selling band as an undergraduate.”
